Like it’s the most annoying format every where 2 year olds always complain about your deck and don’t actually want you to win but just shuffle cards around for no reason and if you ever win they all just complain that you are playing a good deck (which is the entire point of the game), because all the annoying salty people don’t let others play what they want there is no interaction and the boards just fill up with 90 creatures and stupid 5 card combos that shouldn’t be playable and it’s a huge mess where no one even understands what’s going on, like how is this the most popular mtg format
Yes, I used to have the same problem. It used to feel like it was full of invisible and unwritten rules that all contradicted each other. Getting bullied if cards are too strong or too weak.
Casual EDH, that is: as you point out, competitive EDH doesn’t have the same problem.
What I finally realized was that I shouldn’t approach it as a game. I should approach EDH deckbuilding like a crossword maker approaches making a crossword:
To try to create something that is a challenge but beatable.
It’s easy to create an unsolvable crossword. Just a bunch of white noise in a grid. But that’s just no fun to anyone. A good crossbow maker wants the crossword solver to have fun and to enjoy the puzzle, to tease them a bit but keep it realistic and grounded.
Now, a game of EDH isn’t a puzzle, but it’s an experience.
I started out making my first EDH deck super weak (it’s built around Tolarian Serpent) and have gradually been adding powerful cards or interactive cards or cards where I just like the art or the experience or the memory of when I first opened the card. I have a foil Rethink even though there are a lot better stack interaction cards, but it was just the first foil I ever opened so playing it makes me happy. The deck is still weaker than many of precons are out of the box so I still have a ways to go with it but that can be a gradual process of tweaking and modding.
I hope this helps.
Playing intentionally bad cards and shuffling them around for an hour doesn’t sound like a fun experience
Yeah, it’s still not my fave format.
It can sometimes be super boring. But sometimes it can be really charming and fun. For people who get into the lore, the experience, the flavor, or expressing yourself through weird combos. 🤷🏻♀️
For a Magic that’s more akin to D&D than to chess or poker.
It’s not good of people who wanna 💯 win. Which, granted, often is me, but that’s when I reach for other formats 🤷🏻♀️
But the point of magic is not be D&D. In my opinion D&D is a terrible game because the rules are arbitrary and you’re supposed to sit there and hallucinate or something. What makes mtg a good game is that there are concrete rules and a clear objective, if you have arbitrary nonsense like rule 0 and aren’t even supposed to win then you might as well just not play, the whole point is to win like I don’t get it